U.S. And North Korea Held Secret Talks In March

North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-Gwan shakes hands with Clifford Hart, Special Envoy to the Six Party Talks on North Korean De-Nuclearization, upon his arrival to the US Mission to the United Nations. © AFP 2013/ Don Emmert

U.S. And North Korea Held Secret Meeting In March -- Josh Rogin, Foreign Policy

A top State Department official met with a top representative of the North Korean government in New York in March, The Cable has learned.

Clifford Hart, the State Department's special envoy to the now-defunct six-party talks, met North Korea's deputy ambassador to the United Nations Han Song-ryol in mid-March, just before North Korea began its latest string of provocative statements and actions, diplomatic sources said. The meeting was done through what's known in diplomatic circles as the "New York channel," the most common method of direct communication between Washington and Pyongyang.

No real progress was made during the meeting and no new offers were made by the U.S. officials present, the sources said. The U.S. side simply reiterated the administration's call for North Korea to avoid provocative actions as well as its offer for a return to diplomacy if North Korea recommitted to fulfilling its international obligations and pursuing a path of denuclearization. The North Korean side simply agreed to communicate that information back to Pyongyang.

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My Comment: At least they are .... cough cough .... talking.